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‘Serial Stowaway’ arrested at Chicago O’Hare Airport

Marilyn Hartman, the 'Serial Stowaway,' has been arrested again at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

In a most bizarre case, the infamous “serial stowaway,” otherwise known as Marilyn Hartman, has been arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. According to a report from NBC Chicago, the serial stowaway was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon after an electronic monitoring bracelet she was wearing under a Cook County Judge’s order warned authorities of suspicious activity.

Hartman is scheduled to appear in bond court on Thursday morning. Judge William Raines agreed to loosen the restrictions on Hartman’s punishment, allowing her to move from a high security mental health facility to one with fewer restrictions. Hartman had been living in the first facility since last December.

Hartman spent at least 145 days at Cook County Jail last year following a number of encounters with police at both O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago. Following her time in jail, she was sentenced to at least 145 days in mental health probation, as long as she stayed away from “exclusion zones.”

Unfortunately for Hartman, airports were listed as “exclusion zones,” and she ran into a considerable amount of trouble when she was found at a bus shuttle center at O’Hare this Wednesday.

During a hearing on February 4, Judge Raines stated that he wanted Hartman to begin transitioning back into a member of the community. “We wanted to make sure she was on board,” he said. “I want to be able to transition her to get out of Sacred Heart and live on her own.”

Hartman is infamous for her multiple attempts to bypass security at O’Hare Airport, the most recent of which happened last July. She encountered airport security a total of four times at O’Hare and once at Midway since last April, and was escorted off of the premises each time.

In an interview, Hartman acknowledged that she had succeeded at sneaking onto an airplane at least three times, and suggested, “It may have been eight times.”